


Higher Ground

by VolunteerFieryDantooinian



Series: Fordarthur hurt/comfort oneshots [1]
Category: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Genre: Acclimatization Issues, Alternate Universe - College/University, Fainting, Hurt/Comfort, Hypothermia, M/M, Nosebleeds, Pre-Canon, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-05
Updated: 2018-01-05
Packaged: 2019-02-28 03:01:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13262241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VolunteerFieryDantooinian/pseuds/VolunteerFieryDantooinian
Summary: Arthur meets someone strange in a coffee shop. It all goes downhill from there.





	Higher Ground

**Author's Note:**

> The College AU that no one asked for. Also, this is much shorter than I intended, I apologize.

Ford barely remembered how he'd gotten to the coffee shop in the first place. One minute he'd been on the street with a bad nosebleed and the rain crashing and pouring all around him, and the next he'd been practically dragged inside by someone that looked to be around his age, in Earth terms, anyway. He also barely remembered how he'd gotten stuck here. 

One minute, it was just a quick trip out for some much-needed research he'd been doing for the guide, but they managed to crash the goddamn ship. The next thing he knew, he was being left behind by his advisor. They said they'd come back for him, of course, but he wasn't holding his breath. It was hard enough to breathe on this damn planet. 

"Hey, you alright?" The taller, slightly younger guy asked. Well, he figured the human was male, based upon his physical features and the aggressively gendered tendencies of humans- but he'd have to wait and see. Humans tended to be rather.. Restricting, about things like that. Most species had some concept like that- some outdated concept that was so set in stone that anyone who ever questioned it ended up treated like an outcast. 

Personally, Ford thought their blatant worship of binary standards was utterly ridiculous- but humans weren't the first, and they certainly wouldn't be the last, either. So he would let the human establish things first. 

"Um," He struggled for words, trying to get his brain in order and sound slightly human. His teeth were chattering ferociously, and he hoped that would be enough of an excuse to talk as little as possible. "Bad headache." He managed, because that was the damn truth. Ford had only been on Earth for a few days, but it was long enough for altitude sickness to set in. He hadn't had time to acclimatize yet, and Betelgeuse had had a slightly higher concentration of oxygen than Earth. It likely wasn't anything serious; he'd had worse hangovers. It was different, though; the rest of him was achy too, and he was as unsteady as if he was drunk.

The human looked over at him in a way that could likely be described as concerned, which was odd, because he was a total stranger. 

"I'll get you a drink, alright? I don't know how long you've been out there, but you're frozen half to death and you're shaking like a leaf," The human said quietly. "I'm Arthur, by the way. You look a bit familiar- you don't go to uni with me, do you?" Ford shook his head, and Arthur walked up to the counter. His nose was still bleeding, and he took another napkin to keep blood from getting on the table. He was exhausted, hopelessly exhausted, but something told him that sleep wouldn't help.

Soon enough, Arthur returned with something hot that he pressed into Ford's hands. Coffee was familiar to Ford- familiar enough, anyway. There were a thousand things like it across the galaxy. He sipped the drink cautiously, trying to ignore the angry pounding in his head. This coffee was particularly good- hot, soothing, just slightly sweet. It warmed his insides and his frozen, shaking hands. 

"Thanks." He sighed, drinking it as slowly as possible. 

"No problem," Arthur shrugged, smiling a little, and Ford glanced away in slight embarrassment. He wasn't bad-looking, that was for sure. "Wait a minute, damn, I've forgotten my manners. What's your name?" 

"Ford Prefect." He mumbled, resting his head on his arm. All of this talking and noise wasn't helping his headache much. Arthur stifled a laugh. 

"Really? Your mum must've had an odd sense of humor, huh?" Ford looked at him in slight confusion. 

"Yeah, I guess." Humans sure were strange. Perhaps it was only the English ones that were like this. Ford finished his drink, and Arthur motioned for him to come on. He got to his feet, quite evidently too quickly, because his vision spun wildly, his legs weak. His headache felt downright stabbing now, burning behind his eyes. Everything was all... Blurry. 

"Woah, take it easy there. Take it easy." Arthur steadied him, one hand on his shoulder. He felt weak and chilled, and he was glad that no one was around because of the time. If he wasn't as dignified as he was, he'd probably pass out. "I'm taking you back to my flat so you can get some rest, okay? You're clearly not well." Ford nodded, and slowly made his way to the door as carefully as possible, knowing that if he was going to faint, he didn't want to do so indoors. 

Leaning heavily on Arthur, the walk to his apartment through the cold and the rain hardly felt real. His shoes were slick on the wet stones, and he had to stop and regain his balance multiple times. Arthur seemed worried but didn't say anything, giving him soft glances from time to time. Ford was so tired he could hardly see straight, and he was panting already by the time they got to his building.

Needless to say, they took the elevator. They were both cold and soaking wet, though after a short amount of time, Arthur had lent Ford his raincoat, saying that he needed to stay dry. It  didn't do much against the cold, or, honestly, the rain, but it certainly helped. He closed his eyes and tried not to focus on the searing whine in his head, like an angry swarm of bees. The elevator dinged and Ford opened his eyes.

They walked down the hall, and Arthur opened the door to his room. "I just moved out of my dorm," He explained, but Ford was too exhausted to care. He hung up the raincoat and his satchel, shivering violently, and he was barely able to warn Arthur before he fainted.

 

 

~~

 

 

Ford woke up, and the first thing he discovered was that his headache was still there. He didn't feel much better, either. Too weak, too chilled, not to mention the nausea that wasn't there before. His vision was blurry, and there was someone kneeling in front of him, he thought.

"Ford, it's alright, it's alright. You're okay.” Arthur spoke in gentle, hushed tones, and Ford noticed there was at least one gigantic blanket wrapped around him. It didn't do much to fight the chill, but he wasn't quite as utterly freezing as before. He was lying on a couch, propped up with a few pillows as well. "I'll get you another blanket, alright? Maybe fix you some tea," Arthur said, "That should help you feel a bit better, lord knows you need it." 

He was too exhausted to focus, and he just nodded, pulling the blanket closer around himself. His headache spiked and he let out a quiet, pained noise. Ford could barely think straight, let alone talk, so he didn't understand why Arthur asked him if he was ok. He shook his head and Arthur carefully draped another blanket over him and pressed a mug of tea into his shaking hands.

Tea was just hot leaf water, but he accepted the drink anyway, knowing it was hot. He sipped it slowly, and it, surprisingly enough, tasted pretty good. It had a bitterness to it, but it was mostly warm and slightly sweet. He tried to sit up and nearly passed out, vision blurring. It felt like he was trying to move in slow motion, head spinning. Arthur wrapped an arm around him and helped him lay back down. "Take it easy, Ford. There's no need for any more fainting," he acknowledged. "You're weak enough as it is. Hard to tell what's got you under the weather, though."

Ford continued to drink the tea. It felt good, and he was a bit warmer already. He set the mug down on the coffee table that he hadn't known was there. His head still hurt, and he massaged his temples, letting out a quiet sound of discontent. "I think I've got some paracetamol if you need some," he suggested.

"That'd be great," Ford managed, and Arthur vanished for a few minutes and returned with 2 small capsules. Ford took them gratefully, and swallowed easily enough with a little tea. He was still experiencing vertigo and he still felt nauseated. His vision wasn't that bad, but he felt very unwell, worse than he had in a while. Maybe he was as weak as Arthur seemed to think he was- otherwise, he wouldn't be so worried about someone he'd just met. He wouldn't have taken care of him, scooped his weak-as-a-kitten form off of the floor and wrapped him in a blanket and fixed him tea. Anyone else would've freaked out, but for some reason, Arthur had just comforted him the whole time. Damn, he sounded like some kind of hopeless romantic.

He didn't know how humans felt about physical contact with near-strangers, so he didn't mention it, but he wanted to. Betelgeusians were generally touchy-feely, and as a culture physical contact between friends and even strangers was totally normal. Humans seemed different, though. But say, if humans were similar, just very theoretically, he would have liked for Arthur to hold his hand, perhaps. Very theoretically. 

Ford was miserable, and he curled up on the couch, still chilled and weak. Before he could fall asleep, however, Arthur did something a little surprising. He touched the back of his hand to Ford's forehead and pursed his lips. 

"No fever," He muttered. "Odd." 

Ford nodded and closed his eyes, feeling dreadful, but at least he had somewhere to sleep. When he felt better, he'd have to explain this to Arthur, but he didn't care. 

 

At least he wasn't alone anymore.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Ayyy put prompts/requests for more hurt/comfort down in the comments! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.


End file.
